1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which evaluates an exercise function of a person who undergoes an exercise load.
2. Related Art Statement
It is generally known that when a first person having a high circulatory-organ function or performance and a second person having a low one undergo an exercise load, the range of change of an index (e.g., pulse rate) indicative of the circulatory-organ function of the first person is smaller than that of the second person. Additionally, after persons undergo an exercise load, various patterns of time-wise change of the index are obtained depending upon respective degrees of the circulatory-organ function of those persons. Hence, for example, before and after an exercise load is applied to a person, or just after the application of an exercise load to a person and a certain time after, a pulse rate measurement is carried out on the person, so that the exercise function of the person can be evaluated by the comparison between the change of the measured pulse rate values and a standard change value.
However, in the case where the exercise function of a person is evaluated as described above, it is very cumbersome to measure the pulse rate of the person before and after the application of an exercise load, or just after the application of an exercise load and a certain time after. Additionally, the above-identified prior method requires the person to select, according to a look-up table, one of different exercise-function index values which corresponds to the measured pulse rate change. Thus, it is more or less difficult for a person who is not familiar with the evaluation method to evaluate his or her exercise function by himself or herself.
In the above-indicated situation, the Assignee of the present application had proposed an exercise apparatus which simultaneously displays an actual curve representing an actual time-wise change of pulse rate values measured from a person who is undergoing a predetermined exercise load, and a standard curve, so that an observer can evaluate the exercise function of the person by comparing the two curves with each other, and an apparatus which displays, as an exercise-function index, a total energy produced by a person after the application of an exercise load to the person is started and before pulse rate values measured from the person increase up to a target value. The two apparatuses are disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications laid open for opposition purposes under Publication Nos. 7(1995)-67453 and 7-67454, respectively. Each of the two apparatuses--enables a person to see more objectively and more easily his or her exercise function.
In the above prior exercise apparatuses, pulse rate or blood pressure is utilized for evaluating the exercise function of a person. However, pulse rate or blood pressure cannot accurately indicate "internal" load applied to person's body. Therefore, the exercise function of a person cannot be accurately evaluated by utilizing those indexes. In particular, in the case where an inflatable cuff is used to measure the blood pressure of a person, blood pressure values cannot be measured at a cyclic period shorter than several tens of seconds. Therefore, it is difficult to measure a sufficiently great number of blood pressure values for providing an actual curve to be compared with a standard curve, or it is difficult to judge with sufficiently high accuracy whether or not the measured blood pressure values have increased up to a target value. Thus, each of the prior exercise apparatuses cannot enable a person to evaluate his or her exercise function with satisfactorily high accuracy.